INDUSTRY BUZZ

Hugh Hart

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4:00 am PDT, Sunday, June 13, 2004

Photo: PATRICK GARDIN

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American film director Michael Moore, right, poses with American producer Harvey Weinstein during a photocall after he received the Palme d'Or for his documentary "Farenheit 911," after the award ceremony of the 57th International Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 22, 2004. (AP Photo/Patrick Gardin) Ran on: 06-13-2004
Producer Harvey Weinstein and director Michael Moore with Moore's Palme d'Or for &quo;Farenheit 9-11&quo; at Cannes. less

American film director Michael Moore, right, poses with American producer Harvey Weinstein during a photocall after he received the Palme d'Or for his documentary "Farenheit 911," after the award ceremony of ... more

Photo: PATRICK GARDIN

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Vivisecting the health care system may be next on Michael Moore's to- do list. According to IFC Entertainment President Jonathan Sehring, who last week landed the rights to co-distribute "Fahrenheit 9/11," Moore considered filming a documentary expose of the national health care system back in the '90s.

But first, of course, there's "Fahrenheit 9/11," which hits theaters June 25 in an extraordinarily fast rollout after its Palme d'Or-winning premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.

In an unusually complicated deal, Miramax Co-presidents Bob and Harvey Weinstein, operating under the name Fellowship Adventure Group, privately bought the $6 million film from Disney after the parent company declined to distribute it. Fellowship then divvied up rights among a number of companies. A European outfit called the Wild Bunch is handling foreign sales, and Showtime has secured pay-per-view rights. At press time, rights to the DVD, which Moore hopes to have in stores before the presidential election, have yet to be assigned. In North America, IFC Entertainment and Lions Gate Films share theatrical distribution and marketing responsibilities. Once Disney dropped out, interest in the movie was fierce, with Newmarket ("The Passion of the Christ"), Focus Features and others reportedly vying for a piece of the action.

"We have a long-standing history with Michael," Sehring says. "(We) told the Fellowship that we had a very good relationship with Michael because we had done his series 'The Awful Truth' on Bravo. We continue to talk with Michael about (doing) a health care film (with IFC)."

The Fellowship -- a name widely presumed to be a swipe at Disney chief executive Michael Eisner for refusing to bankroll "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy for Harvey Weinstein -- will oversee marketing strategies for "Fahrenheit 9/11," with former Miramax advertising exec Matthew Cohen and Ben Affleck's publicist Ken Sunshine coordinating the campaign in conjunction with IFC and Lions Gate.

It's rare for two independent film distributors to jointly handle distribution within a single territory, but Sehring said he had no problem sharing duties with Lions Gate. "When the Fellowship asked us, we were very comfortable. It's a good fit. When distribution companies see an opportunity to be involved with product that they're very passionate about, as everyone at IFC is about 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' you are willing to make certain concessions to be involved, and Lions Gate feels the same way."

Woman warrior: Who the heck is Boudica? Believe it or not, a couple of summers from now she may well be a household name. Four biopics are being developed about Boudica (also known as Boadicea), the Celtic warrior who avenged the death of her husband and child by leading the fight to drive Roman invaders out of England circa A.D. 200. Mel Gibson's Icon Productions is developing "Warrior" with "Miracle" director Gavin O'Connor; "Traffic" producer Laura Bickford is developing Martha Little's script "My Country"; Paramount has "Proof" playwright David Auburn working on a story titled "Warrior Queen"; and "Wild Bunch" scribe Walon Green is crafting a piece called "Queen Fury" for DreamWorks.

Boudica first flitted across the pop culture radar in October when PBS aired a TV movie, also called "Warrior Queen," starring Alex Kingston ("ER").

ALL FIRED UP: Oscar organizers tired of the perennial complaints that the Academy Awards are boring might want to borrow a few moves from the World Stunt Awards: For their grand entrance last month, Dennis Hopper and Carmen Electra skydived into Paramount Pictures to co-host the show. Brendan Fraser jumped off a 10-story building and came crashing through a fake glass ceiling before handing off the trophy for best high work to the talent behind "The Rundown." And Adam Brody ("The O.C.") was joined by a stunt man who strolled onto the stage in flames to announce the award for best fire stunt, which went to the team behind "The Last Samurai."

Happy trailers to you: Also in May, a jury including Glenn Close, Benicio Del Toro and director Neil Jordan announced their picks for the Golden Trailer Awards, which honor the best movie advertisements of the year. They included "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" (best action); "Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban" (best family) and "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" (best drama). "Elf" won in the best trailer category with a scene featuring Will Ferrell strolling through midtown Manhattan -- which was lifted directly from "Tootsie," according to director Jon Favreau.

"When you have a one-joke film like 'Elf,' we wanted to take a look at how other movies like that worked," Favreau said on his IFC movie shop talk program, "Dinner for Five." "We wound up using 'Tootsie' as our Rosetta stone and re-created the whole bit from that movie where Dustin Hoffman is walking through Manhattan."